There’s been a lot of talk about the impact of ChatGPT on the classroom as people speculate that students will use it to do all of their homework and teachers will be unable to assess student’s ability to research a topic and write about it based on their research. I decided to let that debate rage in other channels and instead to look at it from the perspective of how it might help a teacher.

Putting it to work for the teacher

I was working on building an assignment for my students. The activity was a cross-curricular Math/Language assignment where they were going to select a topic of interest, formulate some big questions about that topic, create and conduct a survey of their peers (or some target audience) then summarize the data, create appropriate charts and create an infographic based on the data that they collected and the charts that they created.

In order to support the students, I wanted to create a list of possible topics for students that struggle to think of their own ideas. I wanted to have 12-15 possible topics. After brainstorming on my own for a while, I had about 8 idea which I had fleshed out but I needed more. My wife suggested I use ChatGPT (I’m supposed to be the nerd in this family), so I did.

First Prompt

I gave it the prompt, “List 5 topics a grade 8 student could use for the basis of doing a data gathering and info-graphic creation assignment.” ChatGPT took it’s time and then came back with the following topic suggestions.

1. Survey classmates about their breakfast, lunch, and dinner choices, and create an infographic to visualize the results.
2. Conduct a survey to determine how much time grade 8 students spend on different types of technology (such as computers, smartphones, and gaming systems) and create an infographic to display the results.
3. Survey classmates about their physical activity habits, including the types of exercise they participate in, frequency, and duration. Present the results in an infographic format.
4. Ask classmates about their knowledge of environmental issues, such as recycling, conservation of resources, and climate change. Use the results to create an infographic that illustrates the level of environmental awareness among grade 8 students.
5. Survey classmates about their future career goals and create an infographic that displays the most popular career aspirations among grade 8 students.

Second Prompt

ChatGPT gives the option to “Regenerate response”. I didn’t try this action but instead, tweaked the question to give me 15 suggestions instead of 5. I wanted to see if it would repeat the same 5 and then add 10 more or if it would give me 15 new ideas. It came back with the following:

1. Favorite sports and activities
2. Types of music listened to
3. Reading habits and favorite books
4. Study habits and schedule
5. Sleep patterns and habits
6. Transportation methods to and from school
7. Family vacation destinations
8. Screen time usage
9. Hobbies and extracurricular activities
10. Snack and drink preferences
11. Family meal routines
12. Shopping habits and brands
13. Attitudes towards school and learning
14. Social media usage
15. Family pet preferences and ownership.

This response wasn’t as detailed but I guess was technically a more accurate response to my prompt because I had asked it for a list.

Third Prompt

I did a third test where a significantly revised the prompt that I gave to ChatGPT. I asked the following, “Identify and provide details on 15 topics that grade 8 students could use for the basis of an assignment where they collect data using a survey and then create an infographic from the data that they collected.”

Here is the third response.

1. Sleep habits: Ask students about their bedtime, wake-up time, and number of hours of sleep each night. Use the data to create an infographic on sleep habits.
2. Social media use: Survey classmates about their use of social media, including frequency, duration, and favorite platforms. Create an infographic to display the results.
3. Favorite school subjects: Ask students about their favorite school subjects and use the data to create an infographic on popular subjects.
4. Extracurricular activities: Survey classmates about their participation in extracurricular activities, such as sports, clubs, and music lessons. Create an infographic that displays the most popular activities.
5. Favorite books: Ask students about their favorite books and authors, and use the data to create an infographic on popular books.
6. Family structure: Collect data on family structure, including the number of siblings, single-parent households, and blended families. Create an infographic that displays the most common family structures.
7. Health habits: Survey classmates about their health habits, including exercise, diet, and stress management. Use the data to create an infographic on health habits.
8. Favorite movies: Ask students about their favorite movies and use the data to create an infographic on popular movies.
9. Future goals: Collect data on future goals, including career aspirations and personal goals. Create an infographic that displays the most popular goals.
10. Sports fandom: Survey classmates about their favorite sports teams and players. Create an infographic on popular sports teams and players.
11. TV viewing habits: Ask students about their TV viewing habits, including favorite shows and time spent watching TV. Use the data to create an infographic on TV viewing habits.
12. Internet usage: Collect data on internet usage, including favorite websites and time spent online. Create an infographic that displays the most common internet habits.
13. Fashion preferences: Survey classmates about their fashion preferences, including favorite brands and styles. Use the data to create an infographic on fashion preferences.
14. Travel preferences: Ask students about their favorite travel destinations and modes of transportation. Create an infographic on popular travel preferences.
15. Favorite video games: Collect data on favorite video games and use the data to create an infographic on popular video games.

Summary

In the context of this simple experiment, ChatGPT acted like a partner teacher. When you’re sitting in the lunchroom doing some lesson planning and you lean over to the teacher beside you and ask them for some suggestions from their experience, that’s what ChatGPT did for me in this instance. My brain was running down a narrow row of ideas and this technology gave me suggestions that were outside of my thinking. I could get the same input by surfing other lesson plans on the Web but it would have taken a lot more time to curate my findings.

My conclusion is that ChatGPT was an effective collaborator on the creation of a lesson plan. It didn’t solve a big problem but it saved me time and gave me content I could cut and paste into my lesson.